Thursday, October 17, 2013

MI (2012):Justifiable homicides under reported to FBI in Saginaw County and statewide

This report from 2012 confirms the Gary Kleck paper that the Uniform Crime Reports understate justifiable homicides by a factor of from 4 to 8.  To put it another way, justifiable homicides are likely four to eight times more frequent than reported by the FBI.  This is easily understood when you read the extremely restrictive definition of a justifiable homicide in the UCR.

There were five justifiable homicides in Saginaw from 2000 to 2010, though the Federal Bureau of Investigation only knows that one of those cases was justifiable.

The killing is one of 117 civilian justifiable homicides that took place from 2000 to 2010 in Michigan, according to FBI statistics, though an MLive investigation has shown those numbers are incomplete.

Saginaw Police Department Detective Sgt. Joseph Dutoi said the agency reports to the state whenever there is a homicide, and the department is supposed to file another report when the homicides are determined to be justified.

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